Page 967 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 31 March 1993
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The paper goes on to mention that many installers of insulation have been very concerned about insulation being rendered ineffective by improper installation. I can speak from vast experience that the insulation job is usually far better done by the home owner. The reason is that working in a cramped ceiling - if you have four feet at the highest point you are fortunate - is very difficult. In any sort of a temperature, even in the winter when you need to have your heaters on, if you are doing it in the late afternoon it gets extremely hot in the ceiling. It is a rotten place in which to work. Any number of people have put their foot through the ceiling, including professionals.
Professionals get paid to do the job and they want to get in and out of there in a hurry. What happens at the corners and edges is fairly well known in the industry. In not all but in a large percentage of cases, installers, when they get to the edges of the house, instead of crawling right over and fixing, let us say, batts neatly, cutting them to the right shape of the joists - if you have a look at a ceiling, the joists vary enormously in size - they give the batt a bit of a shove, and hope for the best. I have looked at innumerable insulations in ceilings and I can vouch for the fact that the home owner usually takes the time. He might spend three weekends fiddling around, trying to make sure that there are no gaps. It is understandable that a lot of professional installers do not spend that sort of time in making sure that the job is as perfect as it can be.
The fourth point mentioned on Mr Moore's information sheet says that, whilst effective insulation is not compulsory, cheaper homes will be offered by builders, which will cost the home owner a great deal more in energy costs. I, and I think most people here, would certainly agree that energy saving is a good idea. Not a great deal of energy is lost through a ceiling. It is certainly appreciable, and people should have insulation, but homes without insulation will be cheaper to purchase. That is the major problem that people have. Many new homes that you visit do not have much furniture. I have sat on crates instead of chairs because people did not have the money to buy them. I have seen sheets up at windows. If someone does not have enough sheets, they use newspapers or brown paper. In this economic climate it can be exceedingly difficult to afford the extra money to pay for a house in which insulation has been installed compulsorily as a result of legislation.
All in all, I see that people will use insulation. There is no doubt about it. They will put ceiling insulation in as rapidly as their pocket can afford it, and is that not what we want them to do? When they can afford it they put it in, and they do not hang around. If you go into a new suburb two years later trying to find houses that are not insulated, you do not find many. It is done as soon as they can. They go out hunting bargains. They have the capability of doing it gradually. If they want to put batts in - I would never recommend such a silly thing for anybody to do in their ceiling because of the harm caused by fibreglass - they can buy a bag of batts. If they want to put rockwool in, they can buy a bag and do a part at a time. They can start on the living area, where most energy is generated and lost.
Mr Berry: What about newspapers?
MR STEVENSON: Mr Berry says, "What about newspapers?". He probably means telephone books.
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